Neither snow nor sore knees nor out-of-town weddings can keep John Crawford from an Ohio State
home football game.

His attendance streak entered its 71st year at the Buffalo game on Saturday. He has been at
every home game since Ohio State beat Illinois on Nov. 13, 1943.

“It just got to be a habit, I guess,” said Crawford, 82.

(My colleague Mike Harden wrote a column on Crawford when the streak was nearing 50 years. As it
turns out, Crawford was just warming up.)

Oh, yes, he runs into doubters.

You must have been sick on one of those Saturdays, they say. (He was — more than once. He went
anyway.)

You must have had a wedding to attend. (He did. In ’92, a TV station flew him by helicopter from
a spot near the stadium to Port Columbus, where he caught a flight to New Jersey and arrived in
time for his nephew’s evening ceremony.)

No one does anything for 71 years without a little inconvenience.

“Some of the games, when his knees were bad, we’d have to stop (walking) because he couldn’t go
any farther,” said Harriet, his wife of 40 years.

Two knee replacements solved that problem. They were scheduled during the offseason, of
course.

The streak began at age 12, when his father took him to a game, said Crawford, a retired
Columbus schoolteacher who lives in the Clintonville neighborhood.In subsequent years, he walked
the aisles of the stadium selling Coke. Then he enrolled at OSU and became a cheerleader.

He counts his train trip to the 1955 Rose Bowl among his most memorable experiences. And, yes,
he was at the Snow Bowl, the infamous 1950 OSU-Michigan game played in a blizzard.

“A lot of people claim they were there. I actually was.”

As far as Crawford knows, he has the longest attendance streak — although another fan, Jerry
Glick, is right behind him. (OSU ticket-office records don’t go back that far.) His streak, Glick
said, entered its 70th year this season.

“John was a cheerleader when I was in school — funny, funny guy,” said Glick, 80. “We tease each
other.”

Crawford has had his seat changed a few times by the ticket office. But he likes where he ended
up: section 29C, in the shade of a tower that blocks the wind.

He’ll climb up there again on Saturday for his 435th home game. He’ll wear his lucky Buckeye
socks (another tradition, although they aren’t 71 years old) and sing
Carmen Ohio in a strong voice. The games provide an escape, he said.

“Every time I’m in there, I’m thinking 105,000 people seem to have forgotten what’s outside
those walls and they’re in there just to watch the game. And when Cassady or Griffin or Eddie
George breaks loose, the spontaneous screaming and yelling — this is a great feeling.”